Production and extraction of red pigment by solid-state fermentation of broken rice using Monascus sanguineus NFCCI 2453

The present work has attempted to use broken rice as an economical substrate for the solid-state fermentation (SSF) mediated by Monascus sanguineus NFCCI 2453 for red pigment production. UV–Vis spectral and FTIR analyses were employed for the confirmation of the red pigment production. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize four significant parameters (extraction time, ethanol concentration, liquid-to-solid ratio and agitation speed) for extracting red pigment from the fermented biomass. Results from ANOVA proved the developed model to be significant as the R² value (0.9602) demonstrated that the experimental values matched well with the results, as predicted. The maximum red pigment yield of 143.3 ODU/gds was obtained with the optimal setting of the process parameters. The model was found to be accurate (99.3%) using validation experimental data. The study serves as a prelude for exploiting M. sanguineus for the efficient production of red pigment using a low-cost substrate.